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<a name="Target-Selection"></a>
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Next: <a href="Architecture-Selection.html#Architecture-Selection" accesskey="n" rel="next">Architecture Selection</a>, Up: <a href="Selecting-the-Target-System.html#Selecting-the-Target-System" accesskey="u" rel="up">Selecting the Target System</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Binutils-Index.html#Binutils-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<hr>
<a name="Target-Selection-1"></a>
<h3 class="section">18.1 Target Selection</h3>

<p>A <em>target</em> is an object file format.  A given target may be
supported for multiple architectures (see <a href="Architecture-Selection.html#Architecture-Selection">Architecture Selection</a>).
A target selection may also have variations for different operating
systems or architectures.
</p>
<p>The command to list valid target values is &lsquo;<samp>objdump -i</samp>&rsquo;
(the first column of output contains the relevant information).
</p>
<p>Some sample values are: &lsquo;<samp>a.out-hp300bsd</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>ecoff-littlemips</samp>&rsquo;,
&lsquo;<samp>a.out-sunos-big</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
<p>You can also specify a target using a configuration triplet.  This is
the same sort of name that is passed to <samp>configure</samp> to specify a
target.  When you use a configuration triplet as an argument, it must be
fully canonicalized.  You can see the canonical version of a triplet by
running the shell script <samp>config.sub</samp> which is included with the
sources.
</p>
<p>Some sample configuration triplets are: &lsquo;<samp>m68k-hp-bsd</samp>&rsquo;,
&lsquo;<samp>mips-dec-ultrix</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>sparc-sun-sunos</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
<a name="objdump-Target"></a>
<h4 class="subheading"><code>objdump</code> Target</h4>

<p>Ways to specify:
</p>
<ol>
<li> command line option: <samp>-b</samp> or <samp>--target</samp>

</li><li> environment variable <code>GNUTARGET</code>

</li><li> deduced from the input file
</li></ol>

<a name="objcopy-and-strip-Input-Target"></a>
<h4 class="subheading"><code>objcopy</code> and <code>strip</code> Input Target</h4>

<p>Ways to specify:
</p>
<ol>
<li> command line options: <samp>-I</samp> or <samp>--input-target</samp>, or <samp>-F</samp> or <samp>--target</samp>

</li><li> environment variable <code>GNUTARGET</code>

</li><li> deduced from the input file
</li></ol>

<a name="objcopy-and-strip-Output-Target"></a>
<h4 class="subheading"><code>objcopy</code> and <code>strip</code> Output Target</h4>

<p>Ways to specify:
</p>
<ol>
<li> command line options: <samp>-O</samp> or <samp>--output-target</samp>, or <samp>-F</samp> or <samp>--target</samp>

</li><li> the input target (see &ldquo;<code>objcopy</code> and <code>strip</code> Input Target&rdquo; above)

</li><li> environment variable <code>GNUTARGET</code>

</li><li> deduced from the input file
</li></ol>

<a name="nm_002c-size_002c-and-strings-Target"></a>
<h4 class="subheading"><code>nm</code>, <code>size</code>, and <code>strings</code> Target</h4>

<p>Ways to specify:
</p>
<ol>
<li> command line option: <samp>--target</samp>

</li><li> environment variable <code>GNUTARGET</code>

</li><li> deduced from the input file
</li></ol>

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Next: <a href="Architecture-Selection.html#Architecture-Selection" accesskey="n" rel="next">Architecture Selection</a>, Up: <a href="Selecting-the-Target-System.html#Selecting-the-Target-System" accesskey="u" rel="up">Selecting the Target System</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Binutils-Index.html#Binutils-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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